After months of delays, Fort Worth school district opens its newest campus

On top of Christmas parties, visits from Santa and holiday sing-alongs, about 400 students in Benbrook and southwest Fort Worth had one more thing to be excited about in December: a new school.

The Fort Worth Independent School District opened its newest campus, Rolling Hills Elementary School, on Dec. 19. The night before students moved into the school, campus leaders invited families to come by for a preview.

During the preview, families walked the halls, learning their way around the building as the Benbrook Middle School orchestra played Christmas carols, said principal Kendall Condit.

“It was just a magical event, kind of like a winter wonderland for our families to get that first sneak peek and find their classroom before our first day,” Condit said.

‘The Giving Tree’ offers design inspiration for new school

During the design stage, architects drew on concepts from “The Giving Tree,” a classic children’s book by Shel Silverstein. Public areas like outdoor learning spaces and a large multipurpose room function as roots feeding into the building’s 45 classrooms, which are the tree’s branches. But perhaps the building’s main attraction is a green slide that starts on the top floor and curves its way down into the school’s library, Condit said.

“It has been kid tested, but the students are earning the privilege to become slide certified by learning our new rules and procedures at Rolling Hills,” she said.

Funding for the construction of Rolling Hills came from a $1.2 billion bond package voters approved in November 2021. The new school is intended to relieve overcrowding at nearby Westpark Elementary School.

Although district officials are calling the project a success, it didn’t go entirely as planned. Officials had hoped to open the school last fall. But delays, caused by a combination of water infrastructure issues and pandemic-induced supply chain problems, pushed the date back by a few months.

While the delays weren’t ideal, Condit said making the move during the week before Christmas break had its advantages. Every year during that week, students and teachers are already winding down for the break, she said, and schools are already running on modified schedules to accommodate special events.

“There’s a holiday sing-along. There’s a Polar Express party for the campus. So we knew that the schedules were already going to be adjusted somewhat,” she said. “So allowing for that flexibility just assisted with the move.”

Making the move during the week before Christmas also gave teachers and students a chance to find their classrooms, get to know the building and settle in a bit before everyone left for the break, Condit said. The timing puts the school in a better position to return to learning quickly when everyone comes back, she said.

Fort Worth eyes campus closures elsewhere

Rolling Hills’ opening comes as Fort Worth school officials are looking at closing campuses in other parts of the district as a result of declining enrollment. At a meeting in September, the school board approved a resolution calling for a study of its school building capacity, including “rightsizing recommendations.”

The board voted unanimously to approve the resolution with no discussion. But meeting documents note that the district’s enrollment has declined from 87,233 students in 2016 to 72,783 in 2023. Officials pointed to a number of factors to explain that decline, including shortages of affordable housing and charter school growth. Meeting documents note that the district has capacity for 90,000 students and a projected enrollment of 70,675 students, leading to “a significant underutilization of District assets.”

In November, Mike Naughton, the district’s executive director of facilities planning, told the Star-Telegram that the study will look not only at what to do with underused buildings in areas where enrollment is declining, but also whether the district has enough capacity in areas like Benbrook, where the district projects enrollments to climb as residential growth continues.

The board is expected to hear an update on the study at a meeting in January.